a qwriting.qc.cuny.edu blog

“There is simply no way to describe the past without lying. Our memories are not like fiction. They are fiction.” This is the main theme of Marcel Proust’s ideas on memories. Jonah Lehrer writes this chapter about “Proust’s fiction, which is mostly nonfiction.” He explains throughout the chapter that our memories lie to us and how “our recollections are phony.” Sometimes depending on our experiences we remember certain situations to be better or worse than what they actually are. We warp memories to fit “our own personal narrative” and sometimes our memories are bias. He describes our memoires as imperfect. But why are our memories imperfect? According to Lehrer our recollections are designed by the brain to always feel true whether or not they actually happened. Our memories are formed by neurons connecting. If neurons don’t touch gaps form. These empty spaces are the parts of memories that change. Another thing that causes memories to change memories is time. According to Proust “time mutates memory.” As time goes on they become a vaguer and vaguer portrait of what actually happened. “They are imperfect copies of what actually happened.” Our brains are not designed to remember every single detail of our memories and what exactly happened. From the video that we watched in class, it explained that men remember jists of things are women remember things in more detail. After reading this chapter it has become clear to me that woman must have more neurons connection in the brain. While men have more gaps. Proust’s ideas about memory and how they are “fictional” become very clear after reading this chapter.